Following this week's official launch in Germany, HTC just announced via Facebook that the HTC 7 Pro will also come to the UK! The HTC 7 Pro is HTC's and Europe's first Windows Phone 7 smartphone, which comes with a hardware keyboard. Unlike the Dell Venue Pro, the 7 Pro features a portrait 5-rows slide-out keyboard. The rest is pretty similar to other HTC Windows Phone 7 devices. The HTC 7 Pro is also powered by a 1 GHz Qualcomm CPU and and supports quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE as well as dualband UMTS/HSDPA (7.2 Mbps)/HSUPA (2 Mbps) at 900/2100 MHz. Furthermore, the 7 Pro will feature WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, aGPS and an FM radio.

The device comes with a 3.6" WVGA multitouch-screen and a 5 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash which allows to record 720p HD videos.

The 7 Pro comes with 576 MB RAM and 512 MB ROM with an internal (non removable or upgradeable) flash storage of 8 GB. At a size of 59 x 117.5 x 15.5 mm the HTC 7 Pro is one of the thicker and with a weight of 185 g, including the 1500 mAh battery, one of the heavier Windows Phone 7 smartphones.

While HTC hasn't provided an expected release date, it shouldn't take too long anymore to hit UK stores. In Germany, it's now on sale for 569 Euro. However, it's not clear if O2 UK will carry the HTC 7 Pro or if HTC will release it through retail stores only.